How to be an Original

21 more riddles to train lateral thinking

My previous post with riddles turned out to be my most popular post so far. In the meantime all the riddles have been solved, so it’s time to present new ones. Enjoy!

  1. She has tasteful friends
    And tasteless enemies
    Tears are often shed on her behalf
    Yet never has she broken a heart
  2. What goes with a wagon that
    doesn’t benefit the wagon
    but the wagon cannot move without it?
  3. Passed from father to son
    And shared between brothers
    Its importance is unquestioned
    Though it is used more by others
  4. Never resting, never still
    Moving silently, hill to hill
    It does not walk, run nor trot
    All is cool where it is not
  5. Though easy to spot
    When allowed to plume
    It is hard to see
    When held in a room
  6. Brought to the table
    Cut and served
    Never eaten
  7. Has feather
    But can’t fly
    Rests on legs
    But can’t walk
  8. This side of a cat
    Has the most hair
  9. What has keys that open no locks
    space but no room
    and you can enter but not go in
  10. I am slim and tall
    Many find me desirable and appealing
    They touch me and I give a false good feeling
    Once I shine in splendor
    But only once and then no more
    For many I am “to die for”

  11. This old one runs forever
    But never moves at all
    He has not lungs nor throat
    But still a mighty roaring call
  12. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
  13. A man dies and arrives at the Pearly Gates of Heaven. He finds himself in a long corridor with two doors, and he knows that one leads to Heaven and one leads to Hell. However, he doesn’t know which is which! Sitting next to these two doors, at either end of the corridor, are two men: the truthful man and the liar. The liar is not deceitful, because he can’t help but lie when asked a question. However, the man can always rely on what the truthful man says. However, they look identical and he cannot tell which one is the liar and which one the truthful man. To find out which is the door to Heaven, he can ask either the man on the left or the man on the right just one question!
  14. A traveller comes to a fork in the road which leads to two villages. In one village the people always tell lies and in the other village the people always tell the truth. The traveller needs to conduct business in the village where everyone always tells the truth. A man from one of the villages is standing in the middle of the fork, so there is no indication of which village he comes from. The traveller approaches the man and asks him just one question. From the man’s answer, he knows which road to follow.
  15. You are visiting an island on which two tribes of natives live. One tribe has black soles and always lies; the other tribe has white soles and always tells the truth. There are three natives standing near you. You can’t see the bottoms of their feet, and indeed you find out it is extremely rude to look at another’s soles, but you are curious so you ask the first man, “Sir, what colour are your soles?” Now he happens to understand English, but he can’t speak it, so he replies in his native tongue, “Glub Glub.” You turn to the second man and ask, “Sir, what did he say?” The second man replies, “He said he has white soles.” Now to be sure, you turn to the third and ask, “Sir, what colour soles does this second man have?” The third man replies, “Sir, he has black soles.” Now the question is, what colour are the third native’s soles?
  16. A man lives in the penthouse of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. Upon his return, however, he can only travel halfway up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way - unless it’s raining.
  17. A police officer saw a truck driver clearly going the wrong way down a one-way street, but did not try to stop him. Why not?
  18. There was once a recluse who never left his home. The only time anyone ever visited him was when his food and supplies were delivered, but they never came inside. Then, one storm winter night when an icy gale was blowing, he had a nervous breakdown. He went upstairs, turned off all the lights and went to bed. Next morning, he had caused the deaths of several hundred people. How?
  19. You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?
  20. What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
  21. I never was, am always to be,
    No one ever saw me, nor ever will,
    And yet I am the confidence of all
    To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball.

Please post answers in the comments.

Warning! There will be spoilers and answers if you scroll down from this point.

Numbers 10 - 12 are from Riddles.com
Numbers 13 - 15 are from Creative Puzzels
Numbers 16 - 18 are from Lateral Thinking Problems
Numbers 19 - 21 are from Brain Food @ Rinkworks

Visit these sites for more riddles-fun. If you liked this post, I would appreciate a thumbs up on StumbleUpon very much!

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Comments (15)

  1. Cristina Ramos

    Thu 2007.08.02

    1-onion
    2-inside
    4-sunshine
    7-mattress
    8-outside
    9-keyboard
    11-alarm clock
    13-I guessed a similar one when I was a kid.
    I think the question would be: “If I asked the other guy to point to the door that leads to hell, which door would he point to?” Both will point to heaven’s door.
    The truthful guy knows that’s the one the liar would point, and he tells the truth. The deceitful guy knows that the truthful guy would point to hell’s door and so he points to heaven’s door (because he can’t tell the truth).
    14- If you were a liar, which village would you say you come from? The man will point to the liars village.
    16-He’s a dwarf. He can’t reach the higher buttons.
    17-The man was walking?
    18-He lives in a lighthouse
    20-a river?
    21-The future?

  2. Hi Cristina,

    Well you certainly found quite a few. But seriously though…do you have an alarm clock that runs forever?! ;)

  3. 1:onion
    2:inside
    3:a last name
    4:sun, sunshine
    7:mattress
    8:outside
    11: wind
    17:he was walking
    19:chicken?
    20:a river

  4. Mary, you found a lot of good answers as well.

    #2 The inside of a wagon may not benefit the wagon, but it’s a part of the wagon. So that’s not entirely correct.

  5. 2: shadow
    13: When you die, will you go that way? (point right) The truthful man, being truthful, will truthfully say yes to heaven and no to hell because a truthful man will go to heaven. The liar will say the same thing because he will really go to hell but lie about it.
    14: Are you from that village? They will both say yes if you point in the direction of the truthful village and no otherwise.

  6. 5. SMOKE
    6. CARDS
    15. Third native’s soles are Black

  7. Nice find on #2 Jane, that wasn’t the answer I had on file, but it’s correct anyway.

  8. Reply to #15
    If the first one had black soles he would have said white and even if he had white soles he would have said white, the second native said that the first one has said that he has
    white soles, that means the second native replied truth so the second native has white soles and since the third native said that the second native has black soles he lied, so the third native has black soles.

  9. 12: Niagara Falls

    (more answers to come (if I’m ‘lucky’ :-))

    PS: would be nice to get notified on new comments - these are 2 plugins where you have to subscribe first (which I think is less convenient…):
    - http://skippy.net/subscribe2
    - http://andybeard.eu/2007/03/how-to-setup-email-notifications-to-avoid-your-wordpress-blog-being-suspended.html

  10. #2 - track(s)
    #10 - christmas tree

  11. #21 - Oxygen

  12. Not do outdo you, only to keep your readers busy:

    http://www.webriddles.com/allriddles.php

  13. actually christina you said it wrong the truthful person would point to the truthful village a liar would not point the the liars village because he lies and thus would point to the truthful village.

  14. 2. Horses/oxen and a driver
    3. Name
    4. Sun
    6. Deck of Cards
    7. Feather Bed
    8. Outside
    9. Keyboard
    11. Waterfall
    12. Niagra Falls
    13. “If I asked the other guy, what door would he say leads to hell?” Take the door he points to.
    14. “Which town are you from?” go to that town
    16. He’s a dwarf/midget/short dude
    17. The truck driver is walking
    18. He’s a lighthouse keeper
    20. River
    21. tomorrow

  15. 2. Noise/Sound
    11. Needle?
    12. Any famous landmark facing west
    17. Anything really - He was the driver. It was his wife/friend. He was bribed. The truck driver was part of the paving crew for the road. It wasn’t his jurisdiction. He was off-duty. Something more important was going on nearby. etc. etc.
    19. Chicken = Skin/feathers off, then cook and eat the meat (now on the outside), then throw away the bone.
    20. River
    21. Future

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